United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative |
|
|---|---|
| Org type | Programme |
| Acronyms | UNEP FI |
| Head | Paul Clements-Hunt |
| Status | Active |
| Established | 1992 |
| Headquarters | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Website | www.unepfi.org |
The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) is a public-private partnership established between the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the financial sector. It counts over 200 members among leading banks, investment funds, and insurance companies.
UNEP FI seeks to encourage the better implementation of sustainability principles at all levels of operations in financial institutions, namely through the incorporation of environmental, social and governance factors (or ESG) in risk analyses.
It is known for designing and developing the acclaimed Principles for Responsible Investment (or PRI), which has now over 900 signatories.
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The initiative rose from the combined forces of a small group of commercial banks and UNEP in 1991 after having identified the need to account for environmental impacts in their operations. In 1992, the UNEP Financial Institutions Initiative was created, followed by the UNEP Insurance Initiative in 1995. Both were subsequently merged to form the current partnership in 2003.
The UNEP FI statement is the backbone of the initiative. It constitutes a list of basic guidelines that should be followed by institutions in order to adhere to sustainability principles. These statements are aspirational, and are therefore followed on a voluntary basis, decreasing accountability to the institution.
Signatories become member of the initiative by paying a nominal fee. The rationale for membership is that the development of sustainable practice in business can increase profits by catalyzing the triple bottom line principle, which acts as an incentive for lending and investors through improved CSR (Caroll, 1999).
Every second year, UNEP FI holds a global summit, the Global Roundtable, with the objective of triggering dialogue between public and private sector on the issue of sustainable finance. Since the success of the first Global Roundtable edition, held in 1994 in Geneva, Switzerland, Global Roundtables have matured into major global agenda-setting events. Each edition of the Global Roundtable is held in a different city.
UNEP FI 2010 Overview, http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/unepfi_overview_2010_01.pdf
Caroll, A.B. (1999), Corporate Social Responsibility: Evolution of a Definitional Construct. Business Society 38: 268.